Explosion in Philadelphia, December 2, 1944

David T

http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/bfm/bfm06.htm

"On Saturday 2 December [1944], Jack Williamson, then a Sergeant in the US Army, hosted a dinner in Philadelphia for fellow science-fiction writers and their wives. He was to be sent overseas in a couple of days and this was his farewell party. Among those present were the Heinleins, the de Camps, the Asimovs and L. Ron Hubbard."

PoD: A natural gas leak causes a massive explosion and fire, killing everyone at the dinner...
 

b0ned0me

Lalli said:
One crazy sect lesser.

But without Asimov science fiction might be bit borer.
Click to expand...

Seriously? Williamson, Heinlein, Sprague de Camp and Asimov were all massively influential and popular science fiction writers as well as editors and mentors of other writers. The de Camps also did a ton of good nonfiction, as did Asimov.
Science fiction would be A LOT borer, whether you mean poorer, more boring, or both.
 

torten

b0ned0me said:
Seriously? Williamson, Heinlein, Sprague de Camp and Asimov were all massively influential and popular science fiction writers as well as editors and mentors of other writers. The de Camps also did a ton of good nonfiction, as did Asimov.
Science fiction would be A LOT borer, whether you mean poorer, more boring, or both.
Click to expand...

So, what your saying is that the choice is between bad science fiction and no Scientology or Scientology and good science fiction. Don't know which one to pick.
Of course, scientology is awful science fiction.....
 

Legend-in-Exile

torten said:
So, what your saying is that the choice is between bad science fiction and no Scientology or Scientology and good science fiction. Don't know which one to pick.
Of course, scientology is awful science fiction.....
Click to expand...

But without Asimov robots will run amok.



Just kidding. He wrote the laws of Robotics in '42!

In all honesty the loss of these writers would definitely alter science fiction and if no similarly talented (or daring) individuals emerged then the genre may not gain as widespread a following, or may end up radically different now. Hard to know how much all subsequent writers used all of these writers work or were influenced by it.
 

Lindseyman

We would be spared the later bloated Heinlein and Asimov novels which tried to tie everything together in one continuity. Foundation and Earth:eek:(not a bad idea but the execution!)
Perhaps Arthur C Clarke bestrides 50s SF as an even bigger figure?
 
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